Hagia Sophia is back in the news. To understand what is happening, we need to know the complex history of this building as a church, mosque, and museum, and the many parties that have sought to claim it. In this episode, Bob Ousterhout (University of Pennsylvania) illuminates this rich history, with a focus on the last century and a half, the current political forces, and the priority to preserve the history of the monument for all who wish to study and experience it. He is the author of the magisterial survey Eastern Medieval Architecture: The Building Traditions of Byzantium and Neighboring Lands (Oxford 2019), and an article on the topic at hand: 'From Hagia Sophia to Ayasofya: Architecture and the Persistence of Memory,' İstanbul Araştırmaları Yıllığı 2 (2013) 1-8, which is available here. [Sidenote: you may want to check out my recent podcast interviews on The Medieval Podcast and the Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Podcast.]
37. The study of Byzantine skeletons, with Chryssa Bourbou
36. Slavery in late antiquity and Byzantium, with Noel Lenski
35. Theophano: A Byzantine Tale, with Spyros Theocharis and Chrysa Sakel
34. An antidote to toxic medievalism, with Amy Kaufman and Paul Sturtevant
33. The study of ethnic identities in Byzantium and beyond (Listener Questions II), with Brian Swain
32. Anastasius the Librarian, the greatest enemy of Byzantium you probably haven't heard of, with Réka Forrai
31. Ethnicity and empire in China and Byzantium, with Shao-yun Yang and Ying Zhang
30. Byzantium in modern Greek life (Listener Questions I), with Dimitris Krallis
28. How we choose our research topics, with Tia Kolbaba
27. The hidden treasures of sigillography, with Jonathan Shea
26. Homer in Byzantium, with Baukje van den Berg
25. Disability in Byzantium, with Christian Laes
24. Social class in Byzantium, with Efi Ragia
23. Digital humanities and Byzantium, with Kuba Kabala
22. Social distancing in early Byzantium, with Ellen Muehlberger and David Brakke
21. Coping with pandemics, with Tina Sessa and Kyle Harper
20. Carolingian and Byzantine practices of empire compared, with Jennifer Davis
19. ”Get out of the way, Battal Gazi is Coming!”: Turkish films on Byzantium, with Buket Kitapçı Bayrı
18. Byzantine soft power in an age of decline, with Cecily Hilsdale
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